Re: 38 twelve convertable restoration

Posted by todd jordan rayner On 2009/3/29 21:38:17

that is very interesting, there were absolutly indications of any body color on the bottom of the car, i honestly belive this was sprayed with tar from day one. and it appears to be identical to identical to the materials sprayed inside the doors and such. the car has never been restored to my knowlege as it was sitting since 1961 or so in massachusits. now in 1938 the states was at another peak high for unemployment and the economy was in rough shape. taking into consideration packard would have had a much reduced work force is it possible they were trying to save labour/materials on production, spraying tar on the underside would be much quicker than painting it marroon. red being the most expensive color to produce. as i said there are no indications of body paint or any paint at all under the tar we removed to facillitate repairs. was this car chemicaly stripped of paint underneith and refinnished with tar prior to 1938? there have been other peculior thing about this peticular car. the rear fenders appear to be sedan rear fenders that have been whitny punched out bolt to a coupe. the rear fenders also match the running boards that flowed straight back from the b pillar instead of doving in as the coupe peices did as far as i have been able to determine from pics. i at first decided that the running boards and rear fenders were a product of poor collision repair from long ago but after i got into it i realized that the curved filler peice between the running board and the body had nail/screw? holes to attach it to the bottom of the body and the two were supposed to match, now those holes in the filler had zero distortion or tooling marks to indicate they were ever attatched to a vehical. this may only mean the were brand new peices and were never installed on the intended model but the body NEVER had any holes in the sheet metal where the fillers would have attatched. i even stripped the lead out to check. Is this car a product of the 1938 recession and the struggling finances of the packard motor company from having just installed a second assembly line to produce the new line? while i have restored alot of cars, this is the first packard. i'm trying my best to research it as i go and have a far bit of experience reverse enginering parts and forensicly determining what was there but i only have the car in front of me, a few pictures, some very old manuals, the internet and the advise of a few people i have met to put the mystery all together. i understand that it is not "correct" or indicative of these cars to be undercoated, but any light that can be shed as to what caused this car to come to be as it is would be appreiciated, i have reason to belive it may be a super 8 body on a twelve chassis. as for the gloss black chassis, i finnished it to the customers preferences.